A wide variety of mechanical apparatus has been developed for use in the mixing of various solids/liquids suspension systems, such as paints and the like. The basic structure employed in the majority of such mixers can generally be described as some form of vessel for agitation; i.e., a tank or mixing chamber having one or more mechanically driven agitators or impellers mounted therein. Said agitators can vary widely in type, location, and method of mounting in a particular mixing chamber. However, the main mixing chamber in such equipment has most often been fabricated with a generally cylindrical shape. Stationary wall baffles are frequently mounted on the inside lateral surfaces of such cylindrical mixing chambers in order to modify the flow patterns created by the mechanically driven agitators employer therein, especially when said agitators are designed to rotate concentrically around the central axis of said cylindrical chambers.
The stationary baffles are usually uniform, elongated, rigid strips mounted longitudinally in the mixing chamber in a generally axial direction along or near the lateral wall thereof. Such baffles are usually solid parallel piped strips and are usually oriented so that a small axis thereof is aligned with radii of the mixing chamber. Basic teachings regarding the effectiveness of various types and sizes of agitators and baffles systems and how they tend to interact to achieve efficient mixing are available in technical literature such as the article by E. J. Lyons in Chemical Engineering Progress 44, p. 341 et seq (1948). The problem with the normal protruding baffles of the baffle arrangements of the prior art is that maximum constriction occurs along the full edge of the agitator blade causing a shearing action which tears the fluid material apart.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,752 disclosed an improvement in the performance of various types of mixing devices by using a unique system of wall baffles. These mixing devices have proven to be especially useful in mixing and reacting fluid material with a wide variety of fluid reagents. However, in order to achieve more efficient treating of the fluid material at substantially reduced energy requirements, additional improvements are necessary.
It is desirable to have a continuous dynamic mixing system for efficiently treating fluid material at substantially reduced energy requirements wherein such mixing system comprises a motivating means to motivate the fluid material into a mixing chamber and a mixing chamber for mixing and treating the fluid material.